Saavn and Gaana.com use love and laughter in new campaigns

The music streaming industry has seen a huge change in the last one year with many new players coming into the market and established players like Saavn and Gaana.com gaining popularity. Recently, both these players released new ad campaigns for television. While, McCann has given a comical tone to Saavn’s new TVC titled ‘They listen to me’, M&C Saatchi has gone the way of romance and used a love story angle to unveil Gaana.com’s new episodic campaign titled ‘Dil Ka Gaana’.

Saavn is one of the first music streaming services to be launched in India and is known for its extensive library. According to reports, last week, the company raised $100 million (Rs 635 crore) in funding led by Tiger Global Management and other investors, valuing Saavn at $400 million.

Gaana.com too holds a steady position among the popular streaming services due to its attractive pricing and availability on various platforms.

The concept of Saavn’s latest campaign titled ‘They listen to me’ comprises a set of five TVCs which talks about the app’s latest features. Conceptualised by Saavn’s in-house creative team and McCann Worldgroup Asia-Pacific, the campaign features a comical series of five spots that promote the brand’s innovative social features like Tag, Chat, Follow and Share. Three of the ads titled, ‘The Wrestlers,’ ‘The Office’ and the ‘Newsroom’ are currently on air and demonstrate how people from all walks of life are empowered by Saavn. The other two, ‘The Professors’ and the ‘Dentists’ will be released in due course.

Commenting on the insight behind the new campaign, Joshi said, “When Saavn’s creative team came to us with the idea of empowering users through Saavn Social, McCann's creative and strategic team knew we wanted to deliver something that not only reflects Saavn’s unique and progressive brand mentality, but also tells the stories of their users – everyday people who have the power to influence their peers on a daily basis through music.”

Gaana.com on the other hand, captures the love story between two characters - Ayaan and Rhea, using a series of episodes. The insight for the new campaign was how music can bring two people together. The agency worked on the idea that the first signs of true love happen when you discover a common interest. And one of the most telling signs of compatibility is if you love the same music. One can infer a lot from someone’s playlist. It indicates his general frame of mind, his outlook on the world, his personality. Working on this insight, Gaana.com unveiled their new campaign.

Giving an insight into the creative thought that went into the making of the TVCs, Nirmal Pulickal, Managing Director and Creative Head, M&C Saatchi New Delhi said, “We decided to look at young love. But not just the initial attraction bit. We looked at all facets of love which includes attraction, intimacy, estrangement, trust and commitment. We decided to step back and look at this not like an ad campaign but to do it like a Bollywood movie about love.”

Strategy and Execution:

In 2014, Saavn.com roped in actor Ranbir Kapoor as the face of the company and he featured in several of their campaigns since then. This time around the brand decided to create a ground level connect by using regular looking people in their films. The five spots feature multiple genres of music, with tracks ranging from the popular song ‘Jumme Ki Raat’ from the Salman Khan movie Kick, to ‘Uptown Funk’ by Bruno Mars.Till now, Saavn’s ad creatives had been done entirely in-house. Saavn’s Creative Director, Teddy Stern, and Sneha Mehta, Vice-President, Editor and Chief, independently conceptualised, directed, and co-wrote each TVC the brand has released.

Similarly the new campaign was also directed and written by Stern and Mehta, but this time the duo’s sensibilities and creative execution is combined with that of the McCann team. The ads have used humour and highlighted common instances of our everyday life to project how Saavn is an integral part of every music lover’s life.

In terms of execution, Gaana.com will be gradually revealing the love story between the protagonists in the form of episodic ads. The first film is currently on air is like a teaser film, and shows how both the characters meet for the first time and sparks fly because of music. A micro-site has been created which introduces the lead characters of the film. Their likes and dislikes are being discussed, giving people a chance to follow the characters on social media in order to know more about them. For the company, finding the lead of the commercials was a rigorous process, but in the end, Piaa Bajpai, an established South Indian actress won the female lead, and Spanish actor, Miguel Herran was chosen for the male lead. The music has been composed by Amit Trivedi and sung by Ash King and Neeti Mohan.

Both Saavn and Gaana.com are actively promoting their new campaign on TV. Saavn’s TVC is being aired in three different languages (Hindi, Tamil and Telugu), for a total of 15 commercials and will be on TV across three months.